Nice W

Just keep winning.

Hopefully Choo and Gomez are alright...

Dyson also pitched a scoreless 8th, although he did give up two, two out singles. As I've said before, if we want to make any kind of noise this year, Dyson will need to be able to handle a few high leverage situations, especially until Diekman is back.

Lucroy needs to be traded at the deadline for whatever we can get. He's still highly regarded. The guy just isn't a fit here.

That's an interesting thought but we do have the best ERA in baseball and I'm sure he has something to do with that.

I was pretty surprised when I heard about the starters ERA.

AP

I may have missed it, but do you have a deal on tickets again this season? Thanks.

double aught said:

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AP

I may have missed it, but do you have a deal on tickets again this season? Thanks.

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Yes. The code is texags17

grapespda2525 said:

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Lucroy needs to be traded at the deadline for whatever we can get. He's still highly regarded. The guy just isn't a fit here.

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Interesting thought during a 6 game win streak. He's not world class, but he is playing much better lately

Whether we trade Lucroy (and Darvish and whoever else has shown value) will come down to where we are in the standings come trade deadline.

Will make for some very interesting decisions if we're hovering in the 0.500 range (and within a few games of the wildcard) and have to decide whether to sell or not... Hard to justify "going for it" with this team and adding a piece or two, but standing pat with a 0.500 team does not set you up well for the future.

Most Astros fans are too dumb to insult or argue with

AccidentProne said:

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Most Astros fans are too dumb to insult or argue with

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They seemingly have forgotten the past decade.

All the Ohtani talk on twitter these past few days has me wondering if they'll trade Yu even if they're 10+ out at the deadline.

It's all rumor and whatnot at this point, but one of the more interesting rumors is how close Yu and Ohtani are and then of course that Yu would really prefer to stay here in DFW.

JD being over in Japan to scout Ohtani personally is only fueling this.

Is that the same one who can't go 10 words without saying daddy?

But keeping Yu for the last 3 months of losing season doesn't help the Rangers future... I understand the angle you're stating, but if Yu wants to stay in Texas then he should be able to understand that re-stocking the farm system by renting him out for 3 months benefits him as well.

Unless he really just doesn't want to be a hired gun for the rest of the year.

AccidentProne said:

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Thinking about changing my handle to AccidentProne, MBA just for all haters on the job network board

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What's going on? I'm a fellow MBA (got mine at UTD) and couldn't be happier with the results. Congrats on the MBA!

Go Rangers!

aggietony2010 said:

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Is that the same one who can't go 10 words without saying daddy?

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Probably. The username starts with a D but that's all I can remember, and for the sake of my IQ I ain't going over there to look.

free_mhayden said:

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But keeping Yu for the last 3 months of losing season doesn't help the Rangers future... I understand the angle you're stating, but if Yu wants to stay in Texas then he should be able to understand that re-stocking the farm system by renting him out for 3 months benefits him as well.

Unless he really just doesn't want to be a hired gun for the rest of the year.

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Your reasoning makes sense to me. I guess I was just saying that I am starting to get the sense that they think Yu and Ohtani could be a package deal and I believe Evan Grant has even said that he thinks if they trade Yu he's not resigning.

That's weird to me but I'm not Yu. Maybe he just really likes it here.

I guess I could see a player not wanting to leave the only clubhouse he's ever really known, even if it's just for a few months.

But man... if we don't trade Yu it's going to be a stressful handful of months worrying not only about getting a deal done but also him staying healthy.

corleoneAg99 said:

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Thought this was a fun comparison...Rangers have three players with a wRC+ of 100 or more:

Gallo 132
Choo 110
Andrus 107

The Astros?

They have 6.

McCann 140
Correa 135
Altuve 131
Springer 124
Reddick 121
Bregman 102


So nothing earth shattering. Astros are the best team in baseball right now(combining 2nd in team wRC+ and 2nd in team xFIP) but the quartet of Maz, Odor, Gomez, and Napoli as a group have been really bad.

They can't stay that bad as a group all year right? Maz and Odor need to be on the list above. Gomez is a wildcard.

Other name missing?

Man Lucroy has been bad. And he's not this bad. Over the past three years he's been second in baseball In combined WAR. Of course Posey is first.

So far this season he's freaking 10th.

So considering the offensive performance of the everyday lineup, for them to only be two games under 500 is pretty encouraging. Even as competition ramps up beyond SD and OAK the Rangers might be due for some positive regression. Which, considering their 2016 season and the commentary around it, is pretty ironic.

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What does wRC stand for? I know that WAR is Wins Above Replacement, but I haven't heard that other one?

I love the statistics of baseball, but these advanced metrics are getting crazy. And the Lastros fans using them as defense is just dumb, you don't play the game on paper, its played on the field and won on the field with some improbable stuff that even the most advanced metrics can't predict.

rwhitlock3 said:

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corleoneAg99 said:

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Thought this was a fun comparison...Rangers have three players with a wRC+ of 100 or more:

Gallo 132
Choo 110
Andrus 107

The Astros?

They have 6.

McCann 140
Correa 135
Altuve 131
Springer 124
Reddick 121
Bregman 102


So nothing earth shattering. Astros are the best team in baseball right now(combining 2nd in team wRC+ and 2nd in team xFIP) but the quartet of Maz, Odor, Gomez, and Napoli as a group have been really bad.

They can't stay that bad as a group all year right? Maz and Odor need to be on the list above. Gomez is a wildcard.

Other name missing?

Man Lucroy has been bad. And he's not this bad. Over the past three years he's been second in baseball In combined WAR. Of course Posey is first.

So far this season he's freaking 10th.

So considering the offensive performance of the everyday lineup, for them to only be two games under 500 is pretty encouraging. Even as competition ramps up beyond SD and OAK the Rangers might be due for some positive regression. Which, considering their 2016 season and the commentary around it, is pretty ironic.

---

What does wRC stand for? I know that WAR is Wins Above Replacement, but I haven't heard that other one?

I love the statistics of baseball, but these advanced metrics are getting crazy. And the Lastros fans using them as defense is just dumb, you don't play the game on paper, its played on the field and won on the field with some improbable stuff that even the most advanced metrics can't predict.

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Careful using that logic. If you post that on the trash talk thread, you're guaranteed to get the entire fangraphs website thrown at you.

I get that ERA is still a predictive measure, but it factors only what has actually happened. It doesn't take into account flyballs, and hard hit balls, and whatever else that goes into FIP and xFIP. Anytime I see someone use those metrics, all I can think about is when the Super Bowl or some other big game is simulated by ESPN or whomever, and whatever the outcome of that simulation is then that is what is supposed to happen.

Don't get me wrong, those metrics are cool and have meaning, but I don't think they should be considered law like SOME fanbases think

Advanced metrics are incredibly interesting and more and more predictive, but when reading them you must understand that the point of the game is simply to score more runs than your opponent.

If you play the "what should have happened" game, then Texas won a World Series in 2011.

corleoneAg99 said:

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All the Ohtani talk on twitter these past few days has me wondering if they'll trade Yu even if they're 10+ out at the deadline.

It's all rumor and whatnot at this point, but one of the more interesting rumors is how close Yu and Ohtani are and then of course that Yu would really prefer to stay here in DFW.

JD being over in Japan to scout Ohtani personally is only fueling this.

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Darvish was quoted as saying JD sent him (Darvish) pics of the food he was eating. Seemed like there might have been some backroom chats, like Darvish telling him (JD) he needed to eat certain things.

While Darvish could stock the farm... I'm not ready to give up on the Rangers. I won't like... assuming Ohtani s all he is touted... I think having Darvish with Ohtani would help Ohtani transition to America.

Hamels, Darvish, Ohtani, Perez, anyone else (AJG\Cashner\Ross\YoMen\Sadzeck\Wiles\Jurado)

Hamels... our best SP (arguably) has 5 GS and will be out.
Darvish has been outstanding (2.96, 1.12) in his 8 GS
Perez has 8 GS and been everything I have believed he could be. He needs to get his BBs down.
Griffin in 6 GS... 3.15, 1.02 - Has been magnificent.

Cashner (6GS) has unpredictably outstanding - 2.42, 1.35. Too many walks, early on. Found his groove.
Martinez (5GS) needs to stay at 6IP/3ER or better. I can live with a 4.50 ERA from him until Hamels gets back.

Tyson Ross could be available in less than 3 weeks. He went 3/45 on Saturday. Plan is one more session in Az 4/60, then two in AAA. I have no expectations, but it is another arm. He (and Cashner) are both 1 year deals.

Usually you want those guys on 2 year deals so you can get more than just a few months out of them, assuming any setbacks. The other side of that benefits the Rangers if they want to invest in Darvish for 2018...

Rangers pitching appears to have some depth and future options. However, it can dissipate quickly, as we've seen.

Ohtani is maybe the most fascinating prospect to ever come out of Japan. He plays like a character that you create in The Show. It's really weird/cool that he projects as both a pitching and hitting prospect individually.

http://www.fangraphs.com/library/offense/wrc/

Since I was hoping to make a point specific to offense(WAR looks at both sides), I picked this stat. There are others that some like better for sure. wOBA for example.

AccidentProne said:

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rwhitlock3 said:

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corleoneAg99 said:

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Thought this was a fun comparison...Rangers have three players with a wRC+ of 100 or more:

Gallo 132
Choo 110
Andrus 107

The Astros?

They have 6.

McCann 140
Correa 135
Altuve 131
Springer 124
Reddick 121
Bregman 102


So nothing earth shattering. Astros are the best team in baseball right now(combining 2nd in team wRC+ and 2nd in team xFIP) but the quartet of Maz, Odor, Gomez, and Napoli as a group have been really bad.

They can't stay that bad as a group all year right? Maz and Odor need to be on the list above. Gomez is a wildcard.

Other name missing?

Man Lucroy has been bad. And he's not this bad. Over the past three years he's been second in baseball In combined WAR. Of course Posey is first.

So far this season he's freaking 10th.

So considering the offensive performance of the everyday lineup, for them to only be two games under 500 is pretty encouraging. Even as competition ramps up beyond SD and OAK the Rangers might be due for some positive regression. Which, considering their 2016 season and the commentary around it, is pretty ironic.

---

What does wRC stand for? I know that WAR is Wins Above Replacement, but I haven't heard that other one?

I love the statistics of baseball, but these advanced metrics are getting crazy. And the Lastros fans using them as defense is just dumb, you don't play the game on paper, its played on the field and won on the field with some improbable stuff that even the most advanced metrics can't predict.

---

Careful using that logic. If you post that on the trash talk thread, you're guaranteed to get the entire fangraphs website thrown at you.

I get that ERA is still a predictive measure, but it factors only what has actually happened. It doesn't take into account flyballs, and hard hit balls, and whatever else that goes into FIP and xFIP. Anytime I see someone use those metrics, all I can think about is when the Super Bowl or some other big game is simulated by ESPN or whomever, and whatever the outcome of that simulation is then that is what is supposed to happen.

Don't get me wrong, those metrics are cool and have meaning, but I don't think they should be considered law like SOME fanbases think

---

Yeah I'm a Fangraphs junkie and love their stuff but even they would tell you no one thing is law. It's a culmination

When it comes to stats like ERA and why some prefer FIP and/or xFIP, it's really about attempting to isolate the pitcher's value by factoring out things they don't control...and we're basically talking about fielding, park, etc, right?

So it just depends on the point you are try to convey. If the point is purely results based, you could take wins and ERA. If you're trying to extract two guys out of their specific situations and working to compile a good fair comparison between the two, some of these metrics can help.

IMO anyway.

corleoneAg99 said:

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AccidentProne said:

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rwhitlock3 said:

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corleoneAg99 said:

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Yeah I'm a Fangraphs junkie and love their stuff but even they would tell you no one thing is law. It's a culmination

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For pitching, anything outside of ERA\WHIP and maybe k/9IP... every other stat is worthless. Eyeballs are all you need.

For hitting, anything outside BA, HR, SB & OBP... you don't need anything other than eyeballs.

There. I said it!

Asked in a mailbag blog about what to do with Gallo when Beltre returns, TR Sullivan seems to think we'll see a lot of Gallo at 3B still and Beltre will DH. I find that hard to believe. Although I could see them easing Beltre back into the field by DH'ing him a few times a week.

There's just no way you keep a gold glove 3B in the dugout if we're in the thick of the playoff race in the second half.

I could see easing him back, but once he's ready to go then he needs to be your everyday 3rd baseman. Not a knock on Joey at all because he has played well over there. If Beltre is ready, then he's the guy. Gallo needs to stay in the lineup, though, and can easily play 1st and LF, and can DH too.

I expect to see Rua get some more time in AAA once Beltre is back.

That gives us

Gallo 1B/LF/DH
Napoli 1B/DH
DDS LF